Surround Yourself With Quality Food!

One of the hardest things about staying on track is how easy it is to be tempted by unhealthy foods that will push us over our calorie budget. That’s why we recommend taking steps to build a healthy food environment around you. These tips will make it easier for you to choose healthy food and prepare you to stay on track regardless of any surprises that life may bring your way!

Tips For At Home

You eat what you see, so put your food in the cabinet, not out on the counters. Researchers found that that having certain foods sitting on your kitchen counter is associated with weighing more. If you’re going to keep any food visible in your kitchen, make it fruit – people who have fruit on their counters tend to weigh less than people who don’t!

Get rid of (or donate!) any food that you have in your kitchen that will tempt you to over eat. Make your kitchen a healthy-zone.

Don’t bring any food into your house that might tempt you to overeat. If you want a treat, get a small portion rather than a full package (think single serving pack of cookies rather than full package).

If you share a kitchen with others, designate a “junk food shelf” for their snacks, and a “healthy shelf” for your foods.

Pre-portion your snacks. When you get home from the grocery store, take the time to split up boxes of things like crackers or chips into single-serving sandwich bags. It is much easier to just grab 1 serving of chips when you’ve taken the time to do this!

Tips for At Work

Similar to at home, don’t keep any food out on your desk, except fruit. Remember: out of sight, out of mind.

Designate a healthy-snack drawer in your desk so that when you’re hungry, you have some good options nearby.

Scope out places near work where you can get a healthy lunch and a healthy snack in a pinch. This way, when you’re hungry and don’t have food that you brought from home, you still have a plan.

Prepare for social events. Is your office big on celebrating birthday parties with cake? Fridays with cocktails? Prior to one of these events, decide if you will indulge, and pre-log the treats in Lose It! to see their impact on your budget. When you get to the event, decide whether or not you will eat them. Remember, you can always take a serving of something, have a bite, and then toss it in the trash!

Have a colleague who tends to leave homemade cookies out on the counter for all to share? Chances are that she brought them to work to get them out of her kitchen, so she wouldn’t eat them all! Aim to only try communal treats after you have logged them in Lose It!, and learned how many calories they have!

Tips for When You’re Out and About

When you’re at a restaurant, control the food that comes to your table. Ask the waiter not to bring rolls, or ask for a salad instead of fries. If you don’t want a certain kind of food in front of you, ask that it not be brought to you!

Be prepared for hunger to strike at any moment by having stashes of healthy snacks hidden just about everywhere (handbag, backpack, gym bag, car, etc.). Ideally, this snack is something you don’t mind eating when you’re hungry, but not something that you absolutely love and are likely to over-eat. Pre-portioned baggies of unsalted nuts are a great option.

Make a plan for being caught without a healthy stash of food by figuring out some healthy foods to buy at a convenience store (unsalted nuts, yogurt, fruit) and fast food place (grilled chicken sandwich, salad, egg sandwich). This way when you’re on the road and hunger hits, you know where to go to get something good.

When going to a social event that revolved around food, bring a healthy dish to share. That way, there will be at least 1 healthy option that you like!

When you take the time to shape your food environment so that it promotes your healthy eating, it becomes a LOT easier to stay on track. By keeping pre-portioned healthy, filling food nearby, and making it harder to access the stuff that makes it easy to blow your calorie budget you’ll be well on your way to reaching your goals.